Phightins

And tomorrow there will be a new team that comes out of nowhere and is the "frontrunner". Do not trust any of these "insiders", no matter how many fancy "sources" they have.

You'd think that the law of averages would bring at least a little good fortune to this team at some point. Thought it might happen tonight. Had a very good chance to win a very unfavorable pitching matchup (Joe Blanton vs. Jaime Garcia). Guess not.

Shut your mouth.

This line should be put in the main banner or something. If more people realized this, we would not have nearly as many "conflicts" on here as we do.

Noodle?

Good.

Welcome to the show, Vance Worley.

There absolutely will be.

Looks like a trade is coming this week.

*Sigh*

Andy Martino is a traitor. He is not to be trusted.

Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News suggested that Marty Turco might be willing to sign for $1.25 million, or somewhere in that neighborhood. That would be a nearly 800% pay cut from last year, but he may have no choice if he wants to stay in the NHL. Anyway, if this is true I certainly hope the Flyers sign him. If they are able to get Walker through waivers and into the AHL, they will have a little more than $3 million in cap space.

The moves that really screwed the team over were when he overpaid for Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell back in 2007, which is what got the team in this terrible cap situation in the first place. Zherdev was signed to basically replace Gagne as a 1st or 2nd line winger. I happen to like that deal a lot, very affordable for a guy with that much potential. And it is only for one year. If he winds up being a bust, he is only on the books for this year, and if he plays himself into a bigger contract, hopefully Giroux, van Riemsdyk, etc will have progressed to the point where losing Zherdev won't be a huge deal. The Meszaros deal is a bit suspicious. He is definitely overpaid, but he (along with Sean O'Donnell) provides a significant upgrade to the 3rd pairing, which was the main objective of this offseason. In order to afford these upgrades, one of the expensive forwards had to go, and Gagne was the only one even slightly trade-able. If Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere, James van Riemsdyk, and Claude Giroux do not underperform again this season (and of course if Zherdev plays well), the loss of Gagne will not be a huge deal. Losing Gagne obviously sucks because of how great of a player he has been. But he was the second most tenured athlete in Philadelphia (only David Akers has been here longer, and Jimmy Rollins is the only other guy anywhere close). He is loved around here. The fact that he was let go for salary cap purposes is a very tough pill to swallow. But at the same time, it had to be done.

Not really. Salary dump, Homer's hands were tied. Of course, he brought this on himself with poor cap management earlier in his tenure as GM. But, he had no leverage and it was not realistic to expect much of a return for Gagne in terms of talent/draft picks/whatever. In the end, the Flyers got precisely what they wanted, which was cap flexibility. Would it have been nice to get a great goalie prospect or a first round draft pick for him? Absolutely. But which GM in their right mind would pay that kind of a price for a guy who was going to have to be waived if the Flyers couldn't trade him soon? Always sucks to see a terrific and beloved player moved strictly for cap purposes, but that's unfortunately the case here.

I'm not surprised really. And if I was Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Toronto, or any of the other teams who were reportedly interested in Simon, I wouldn't have offered much either. Flyers had absolutely no leverage. Everyone knew they had to trade him.

Sucks to see Simon Gagne leave as a cap casualty. This trade is basically what I expected though. As expected, most Flyers fans are not at all happy. Any Flyers fan that had an illusion of trading Gagne for an elite goalie prospect, high draft pick, etc. is either very unrealistic or has no idea how the NHL salary cap works. If there is anything to be upset about with this trade, it is the fact that Paul Holmgren overpaid for Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell 3 years ago, which is what put the Flyers in this position in the first place. Of course, I didn't see many Flyers fans complaining then.

Nevermind, not Smith. Matt Walker and a 4th round pick.

Sounds like Simon Gagne has been traded to Tampa Bay for Mike Smith. The Smith part is not official yet, but this is a sad day for the Flyers. Knew it was coming, and it had to be done, but Gags has been the only mainstay on this team for the entire past decade. He has done so much for this team, so it's sad to see him go.

That makes sense. There seems to be a lot of interest in him. The Marlins play these situations better than anybody in baseball.

The Brewers will get nowhere with this. I did not see this game so I am talking out of my [expletive] here, but these "complaints about hit batters" are ridiculous, since 99.9% of the time it's impossible to know what is intentional and what isn't. It is part of the game.

It was only a matter of time once the Kovalchuk deal went down. Just curious what we are getting back. I am hearing Mike Smith is a possibility.

Is Burnside for real? He is saying it's a 17 year deal.

They made it to the Super Bowl. This Phillies team is coming off back to back pennants and had higher expectations than ever this season. Better team "on paper" (as much as I hate that saying) than any Phillies team arguably in history. Total disappointment.

I am not going to lie.....that is the gayest 20 second video clip I have seen in my life. Every aspect of it.

Most disappointing season any of my teams has had in my life. By a lot.